{"id":1325,"date":"2026-10-13T10:35:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T10:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/?p=1325"},"modified":"2026-10-13T10:35:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T10:35:37","slug":"mini-organs-launching-to-space-may-help-future-astronauts-and-humans-on-earth-stay-healthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/?p=1325","title":{"rendered":"Mini organs launching to space may help future astronauts and humans on Earth stay healthy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NASA.gov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Miniature organs being sent into space for the\u00a0very\u00a0first time may\u00a0soon\u00a0help scientists understand how spaceflight impacts certain organs and may accelerate aging.<\/p>\n

In a joint effort by researchers from Mount Sinai,\u00a0NASA\u00a0and aerospace company Space Tango, these mini organs will be exposed to the increased radiation\u00a0and microgravity\u00a0astronauts face in space, especially on long-duration missions.<\/p>\n

“If people are going to be living and working in space, then we need to understand what’s going to happen to them,” David\u00a0Sachs,\u00a0assistant professor of surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told ABC News. “But also, because it’s interesting as a model of accelerated\u00a0aging\u00a0for studying people on Earth.”<\/p>\n

The mini organs launched aboard commercial resupply mission CRS-35 on Tuesday morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. They are expected to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Astronauts age faster in space because microgravity\u00a0and radiation exposure negatively affect multiple body systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The miniature\u00a0organs offer researchers\u00a0a unique opportunity to simulate\u00a0aging\u00a0in a much shorter period of time to understand disease and develop treatments.<\/p>\n

“Six months in space … is equivalent to about 10 to 20 years of aging on Earth,” Kevin\u00a0Costa,\u00a0associate professor of surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told ABC News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sachs and Costa are sending up to 16 miniature hearts to the ISS to test how they respond to electrical signals\u00a0and\u00a0monitor how they may react to near-zero gravity.<\/p>\n

Mount Sinai’s Cardiovascular Research Institute sent individual heart cells\u00a0<\/a>to the ISS in 2023, confirming they could survive in the weightless environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The technology, which is integrated into a miniature laboratory called CubeLab, was developed by Space Tango and\u00a0simulates\u00a0the natural environment in the human body.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“[It is] slightly bigger than a shoebox, and it is a fully automated, miniaturized system,” Gentry Barnett, chief technology officer at Space Tango, told ABC News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of the new effort, the team is sending miniature brains, called miBrain, to the ISS. Around\u00a0the size of a peppercorn, the miBrains reflect\u00a0models of healthy and diseased brains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By exposing them to the space environment, scientists can see how mini-brains respond and better understand why living in space accelerates aging.<\/p>\n

Though the mini organs are not full-sized human organs,\u00a0the researchers say\u00a0they are\u00a0good substitutes, cost-effective and don’t take up much of the limited\u00a0space aboard the space station.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

They also believe\u00a0discoveries made in space\u00a0can translate\u00a0to uses in everyday medical care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The microgravity environment uniquely allows researchers to study what happens to humans with a sedentary lifestyle or prolonged\u00a0bed rest, which isn’t easily simulated on Earth, Sachs explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“[The research is] translating to stuff in space, but it’s also translating back to the research we do in the laboratory to help people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease,”\u00a0Joel Blanchard, associate professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told ABC News.<\/p>\n

Lisa Carnell,\u00a0the director of the\u00a0biological and physical sciences division\u00a0at NASA, told ABC News\u00a0that\u00a0these experiments serve as a starting point for future research beyond low\u00a0Earth\u00a0orbit, including to the moon and beyond.<\/p>\n

“We sent Apollo astronauts out there over 50 years ago, but the techniques and the way that we can actually do assessments to understand what’s happening has come a long way since then,” Carnell said.<\/p>\n

NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon’s surface in 2028 and build a permanent base in the next decade. The agency and private space company SpaceX have also discussed sending humans to Mars in the not-so-distant future.<\/p>\n

“We’re making leaps, not incremental research, by taking biology to space, because you’re seeing changes that you cannot see on the ground in ways you’ve never seen it before,” Carnell added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Allen Chang is a geriatric medicine subspecialist at Dalhousie University and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA.gov Miniature organs being sent into space for the\u00a0very\u00a0first time may\u00a0soon\u00a0help scientists understand how spaceflight impacts certain organs and may accelerate aging. In a joint effort by researchers from Mount Sinai,\u00a0NASA\u00a0and aerospace company Space Tango, these mini organs will be exposed to the increased radiation\u00a0and microgravity\u00a0astronauts face in space, especially on long-duration missions. “If people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}